Pre-hearing Delays Hit In Montco Speedup Is Planned In Child Support Cases

May 31, 1985|by DAN FRICKER, The Morning Call

The Montgomery County commissioners and the county judges announced a joint effort yesterday to reduce from eight to two weeks the time it takes for child support cases to reach the hearing stage.

Commissioner Chairman Paul B. Bartle said the county will add threehearing officers and three clerks to the domestic relations office at a cost of about $100,000 yearly.

In addition, President Judge Richard S. Lowe said he will reassign one of the county's six criminal court judges to family court by Labor Day. Three judges now sit on family court.

"The burden on the family court is so great that we have to give them some relief," Lowe said.

The announcements were made yesterday during a news conference Bartle and Lowe held with state Rep. Lois S. Hagarty, R-148th District, in the courthouse in Norristown.

Lowe said a backlog of child support cases now delays hearings six to eight weeks, and Bartle said the county goal is to reduce that time to two weeks.

Last year, county domestic relations officers and family court judges heard 16,798 child support cases, with collections totaling $24.5 million.

Under the system, domestic relations officers hear petitions for child support. If the parents fail to agree, the case goes before the master in support, with appeals to family court judges.

Last August, Hagarty introduced legislation to automatically attach the paychecks of parents who fail to make child support payments for more than 30 days and to authorize the state Supreme Court to establish monetary guidelines for support payments.

The measure was unanimously approved Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee and a House vote is expected within two weeks.

Hagarty said the problem is that 65 percent of parents paying child support in Pennsylvania are in arrears, and those making payments pay an average of only 50 percent of the amount ordered.

The 1984 federal Child Support Enforcement Act requires states to enact legislation attaching the incomes of delinquent parents by Oct. 1 and to establish support guidelines by 1987. States that fail to will lose federal funds for child support enforcement, Hagarty said.

On June 10, Lowe said, the county board of judges will meet to consider adopting monetary guidelines used in Allegheny County, which Hagarty said has a model system.

Lowe praised guidelines, saying they afford judges flexibility while promoting settlements because both sides know the amount the court will use as a yardstick. Judges usually order support payments within $25 of the guidelines, Lowe said.

"The judge may enter an amount higher or lower than the guidelines predicated on the circumstances," Lowe said.

Said Hagarty, "It is hoped that guidelines will bring support payments up to a more realistic levels."

Bartle also announced that a five-member committee headed by Henry Pennington is seeking new offices for the domestic relations office, now in One Montgomery Plaza, across from the courthouse. The committee, which will report its findings by the end of June, is looking for a cheaper and more convenient location, Bartle said.

The domestic relations office lease in One Montgomery Plaza expires tomorrow, but Bartle said the county hoped to negotiate a one-month extension with the building's owner.

The completion of the new county prison next year will also spur child support payments, Lowe said, because overcrowded conditions at the current prison prevent the jailing of delinquent parents.